Creative Zen X-Fi

Features and performance
Misc. Features
The interface is as vibrant as before with a few colorful themes, and the ability to use your own images as backgrounds makes it more attractive. But there’s no difference from the previous Zen. The icons are the same and miscellaneous features (like the Sync capabilities for Calendar, Tasks and Contacts list feature in the Organizer with your PC) are also present.

The main differences are the presence of the X-Fi feature with the Crystalizer and Expand option, and an external speaker located on the bottom of the player. This speaker is quite redundant, considering there are mobile phones that offer louder sound. As in the previous model, the player charges via USB.

There’s nothing much I can tell you about the Image Viewer, except that pictures look simply superb. You can set an interval for your slide show and transitions, and play music in the background for effect. Nothing new here, it was as good then as it’s now. It reads JPEG (and BMP/ GIF / PNG / TIFF) formats.

Creative’s new and improved player management software called Creative Centrale is quite flashy but takes a bit of getting used to if you’re a first-time user. The worst part is it takes unusually long to scan your PC or drive for audio. In my case after the installing, removing and reinstalling it kept scanning my Music folder for an indefinite period till I got quite frustrated and simply shut it down and copy-pasted the files on to the drive.

Users can access a memory card from the dedicated menu option provided for the same, which is nothing new either. The problem is, if you’re playing music files, you won’t be able to access the other settings like the EQ or anything else for that matter. So it’s simply playback and nothing more. I wasn't able to access the memory card via the PC when connected via USB. The only drive accessable was the player memory.